The microscope seems to came first.
During the 1590's, two Dutch spectacle makers, Zacharias Jansen and his father Hans started experimenting with lenses. They put several lenses in a tube and made a very important discovery. The object near the end of the tube appeared to be greatly enlarged, much larger than any simple magnifying glass could achieve by itself.
Their first microscopes were more of a novelty than a scientific tool since maximum magnification was only around 9x and the images were somewhat blurry.
It is believed that Zacharias Jansen's father, Hans, helped him build the first microscope in 1595. Zacharias wrote to a Dutch diplomat, William Boreel, about the invention. When the physician of the French king inquired about the invention in the 1650's, Boreel recounted the design of the microscope.
As for the telescope, what we found is that the first person to apply for a patent for a telescope was a Dutch eyeglass maker named Hans Lippershey (or Lipperhey). In 1608, Lippershey tried to lay claim on a device with three-times magnification. His telescope had a concave eyepiece aligned with a convex objective lens.
In 1609, Galileo Galilei heard about the "Dutch perspective glasses" and within days had designed one of his own — without ever seeing one. He made some improvements on his initial design and presented his device to the Venetian Senate. The Senate, in turn, set him up for life as a lecturer at the University of Padua and doubled his salary, according to Stillman Drake in his book "Galileo at Work: His Scientific Biography*" (Courier Dover Publications, 2003).
Galileo was the first to point a telescope skyward.
A scientist is someone who investigates the secrets of nature. An inventor is someone who tries to create useful products and devices. Some people have been incredibly successful in both endeavors. Here are twelve of the best shared by Famousscientists.org.